Vertically rippled flat coil configuration for SMES

A novel vertically rippled flat coil design concept for superconductive magnetic energy storage (SMES) is presented. The coil consists of two or more horizontal layers that are rippled in the vertical direction. The thermal strains of the coil are accommodated by vertical bending and the magnetic forces are taken up by radial bending. The coil is very stiff in the radial direction to transfer magnetic forces to the external warm structure, which causes very small structure bending stresses and results in essentially a strain-free conductor during operation. The vertically rippled coil is very flexible in the vertical direction and accommodates large thermal strains occurring during a cool-down or warm-up process with only small stresses. The impact of this concept upon the SMES design is discussed.<>